Her Eyes
by invincibleironman
Summary: Just a little idea i had while re-reading Fairest and the end of Cinder. Levana's reaction to seeing Cinder's glamour. Also i found the artwork used for this on the wiki and i don't know who made it so if someone knows and tell me I'll happily link them. This may evolve into a series of drabbles.


"Impossible" she breathed. It couldn't be those eyes, the very eyes that had tormented her all her years. _"Come here, baby sister, I want to show you something."_ Perhaps if Levana had less practice at keeping her glamour up it would've slipped. But no this just made her more determined. So what, the child may have Channary's glamour Levana was a queen who would never be reduced to an ugly duckling again. When the girl- Cinder (how fitting considering Levana had thought that'd been all she'd been reduced to) shot at her she didn't let any emotion escape. Her gaze was fixed, mesmerized by the eyes se had hoped would be forever gone. Eyes that tilted up just right at the corners so that she looked like she was smiling even when she wasn't. She'd never known whether the shape was a part of Channary's glamour since the colour obviously was, well at least that mystery was solved. It was like being back there talking to the nanny, formulating the plan.

As the girl sprinted away she followed leisurely as if she had all she time in the world. If she showed any urgency they'd wonder, why was the queen so afraid of a simple girl-perhaps not a shell as she once thought but still most likely a peasant who escaped. As she gathered her sparkling gown in her hands, prepared to go down and greet her niece herself a nearby thaumaturge stopped her pointing out the security camera. Damn she'd hoped to have ended this the way it should've ended all those years ago in the nursery. With her as the true queen.

As the prince bent down to pick up what seemed to be her metal foot Levana held back a laugh. A cyborg! She thought with glee. Luna would never accept a cyborg as their queen, but her position wouldn't truly be cemented until she was gone, reduced to cinders along with her arm and leg. "Disgusting" she jeered her voice sounding strangely stilted. "Death would be merciful." "She wasn't a shell after all," Sybil spoke in astonishment "How did she hide it?" "It matters not!" she snapped. The last thing she needed was Sybil bringing this to everyone's attention. She'll be dead soon enough. Jacin?" The guard walked towards her and Levana held back another laugh. She could remember a day when the three had been inseparable- Jacin, Selene, and Winter. And now he'd be her executioner.

"Wait." The prince spoke stopping the proceedings. Levana frowned with annoyance, what was with him and this cyborg. According to Sybil's spy he didn't even know of the cyborg's importance. So then why was he stopping this for her. Unless he wanted to side with her instead. A cold smile replaced the frown, she'd show him just how harsh Luna could be. It took him a couple of tries to get the words out. His voice was soft when he finally spoke. "Was it all an illusion?". The question seemed to pain the girl as she winced muttering his name. "Was it all in my head? A Lunar trick?" Cinder seemed to have her own difficulty getting the words out but responded with a fervent "no." her face twisted in a grimace. Oh dear Levana thought, not more teenager love stories. She'd dealt with enough of these from Channary.

Her attention snapped back as the girl, lay pitifully whispering an apology. "You're even more painful to look at than she is" the prince declared. The boy's response seemed to hurt her more than any of the events of the night. And although a part of her relished in it, a part of her recalled a girl not too long ago who'd also offered her heart up on a plate and been rejected. Underneath her glamour, she wore a bitter smile, _"Love is a conquest! Love is a war!"_

Perhaps it was cruel to let the thing suffer like that, but Levana couldn't afford to show mercy not when her entire rule was at stake. As she moved to speak the prince interrupted her. "She will be taken into custody, she will be imprisoned until we can decide what to with her" and here he spoke firmly "But if you kill her tonight, I swear I will never agree to any alliance with Luna." Levana scowled the longer they took to decide the more was at stake for her, but he didn't know. She calmed her temper, after all if the earthern wanted toplay a little game and let her suffer then so be it. "She will be my prisoner," she agreed "She will be returned to Luna and tried under our judicial system." The unspoken words stood clearly before them all. Cinder would be found guilty, and then executed. If this upset the prince he didn't show it "I understand in return, you will agree not to wage war against my country or planet."

Levana took a deep breath. What had seemed to have been a night to entrance the young emperor had turned into so much more "Agreed. I will not wage war against Earth for this infraction. But I would tread lightly, young emperor. You have tried my patience greatly this night." As the girl was led away she stroked his cheek pretending not to see him flinch. "Well now that wasn't too hard was it pet?" her voice had gone back to its lovely glamoured cadence. He didn't respond the look he sent after the girl spoke enough at least for Levana it did.

As soon as she entered her room she almost began to let her glamour go, and to let her temper she kept calm, after all the queen can't show her subjects the truth, and confidante or not Sybil was a subject. "How dare she show her face?" since the revelation of Selene, Levana had fluctuated through several emotions all carefully masked of course. Sybil stood nearby hands tucked in her enormous sleeves, face full of sympathy. Sybil who'd known her since she was a child, knew the pain of her past. "Yes it was quite strange that she'd show up at a gala where she knew you'd be."

Levana paused her silent raging. "You mean you think she doesn't know?" Sybil let out a little laugh, cold and condescending making Levana's lip curl. Sometimes she felt she trusted her too much, and now she was forgetting her station. Sybil seemed to have caught her mistake as she looked at Levana with apologetic eyes, as she spoke. "Well judging by her attire the decision to attend was clearly a last minute, so perhaps she didn't know but guessing by the urgency of when she arrived I'd say she found something out." Hmm it was an interesting enough theory. "Why don't you check if your little Crescent Moon knows anything" she dismissed her.

As Levana took a seat in one of her chambers plush armchairs she ran a hand through the hair that remained beneath her glamour. "So much left to do" she muttered aloud. And then as if by magic an idea came to her. Perhaps if she dressed up as the cyborg he was so enamoured with. But almost immediately she banished the idea from her head. She couldn't do what had happened with Evret and Sol again. Yes, she didn't love this boy, but the mere memory of doing it again would be too painful. Besides she wouldn't be able to stand going around looking like Channary. No she'd find another way, she thought her stare burning a hole into the picture of the young prince, in the royal family portrait hung in almost every room of the palace. "Like it not boy this planet will be mine."


End file.
